Finally got to see Josie Rourke's first play as artistic director at the Donmar last week and I think it might have been a case of too much hype. I'd been judiciously avoiding reviews and comments but a total blackout would involve disabling the internet and not speaking to anyone for months and so the good vibes about the production were penetrating my conscious.

I didn't dislike The Recruiting Officer indeed there is much to like about George Farquhar's restoration comedy.

The Donmar has been transformed, the wall behind the stalls removed gives an added sense of space, the costumes were outlandishly appropriate and there were some great, show stopping performances. And I loved the lit candles everywhere which gave the play a real sense of place in time.

The problem was I just didn't care enough about what was happening. It's a story of conspiracy to woo, to seduce the right partner and prevent your rivals from doing the same wrapped around a period when shady army recruitment practices were common. I suppose I didn't entirely warm to the characters enough or their enterprise.

Dare I say it a couple of times I started getting a bit bored. Total Film magazine used to and may still, I haven't seen a copy recently, draw a graph showing the peaks and troughs of entertainment value throughout major films they were reviewing and if I were to do the same for the Recruiting Officer, then the graph would look like foothills with a couple of notable peaks. 

Mark Gatiss can be credited with the first major peak. It was almost as if the audience was waiting for him to make his first appearance as Captain Brazen and uniformly heaved a sigh of 'yes we can enjoy it now' when he did appear. But then Gatiss's Brazen, sadly, isn't on the stage nearly enough.